from the album Blake Lewis (EP)

"You Give Love a Bad Name" is a song written by Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child, Jack Ponti, and Richie Sambora about a nameless woman who has jilted her lover. Although originally written for the band Loverboy, the song was recorded by Bon Jovi. The track was released as the first single from the hard rock album Slippery When Wetand hit number one on the Hot 100 on November 29, 1986, Bon Jovi's first number one hit. The song reentered the charts at #29 after Blake Lewis performed it on American Idol. In 2009 it was named the 20th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.

The song was written with several catchy repeated lines and associated hooks to appeal to mainstream audiences including the chorus as well as several bridges.

The album version of the song ends with the title being repeated until it fades.

The music video for the song used all-color concert footage (the only all-color video song from Slippery When Wet) and Soteria photogenic shots primarily of Jon Bon Jovi as well as other band members in concert. This video was filmed at the Olympic auditorium in Los Angeles, CA.

In 1989 Bananarama did a live version of this song during their World Tour.

The song was also covered by the metalcore band Atreyu and is available on the Japanese Version of their 2004 album The Curse. It was covered on the Kerrang! CD, High Voltage. It is frequently played during their shows even though it was voted one of the years biggest rock atrocities in Total Guitar.

In 2005, Polish singer Mandaryna released a version of "You Give Love a Bad Name" as the second single from her number one album mandaryna.com2me. The song reached #1 on the Polish Singles Chart.

Jonathan Fin covered this song, but, talking about how Barry Bonds gave baseball a bad name. The line, "shot through the heart and you're to blame, you give love a bad name,' was changed to, "Shot in the ass before the game, you give baseball a bad name."

Some critics say that the song has the same chorus structure as "If You Were A Woman And I Was A Man" by Bonnie Tyler. The Tyler song was also cowritten by Desmond Child. There is also a remix called "Shock From The Heart" with a new rapper named Famouz. Desmond Child has stated that the song is effectively a reuse of the musical structure of the earlier song.

Demi Lovato performed a version of the song during a concert at the Wiltern Theatre in December 2008.

Ranked Number 20 in VH1's " 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs".

In the popular game Warcraft 3, the Night Elf Archer unit will quote after multiple mouse clicks, "Shot through the heart, and I'm to blame."

The song was used in the commercial of a 1995 Kia Pregio. (released in South Korea). [1]

The song was made playable in the music video game, GuitarFreaks 6th Mix/ Drummania 5th Mix, as well as Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, and Guitar Hero 5.

This song was played on a recorder by Rainn Wilson's character Dwight Schrute on the NBC TV Show "The Office" in Episode 4 of Season 4 (Money).

In the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother, the song features prominently (and repeatedly) on Barney's "Get Psyched" mix in the episode "The Limo."

On Australian music TV channel MAX, it was name #131 on their top 1000 80's vs. 90's countdown over Easter weekend 2009.

In Thunderbolts#131, Black Widow shot Deadpool in the chest. After examining the hole, Deadpool dropped to his knees and sang the chorus.

On the 9th Season of Dancing with the stars Donny Osmond, Joanna Krupa, Kelly Osbourne and there partners danced to this song for their Team Tango.